The Morning After
by Julie Horwitz
Summary: Mal and Ben discuss what led up to Mal's return to the Isle.


**Disclaimer:**

The following is a work of fanfiction. All characters and situations belonging to the movie "Descendants" are copyrighted to Disney Enterprises, Inc.

 **Author's Notes:**

The end of "Descendants 2" left me wondering about the state of Mal and Ben's relationship. (Much like the original movie did, which led me to write the now non-canon "The Words.") Yes, they had come to realize they had a True Love, but they still had a lot of emotional baggage from what Mal had done. So I wrote this to satisfy my need for a resolution to their issues. I hope those of you reading it will find it to be satisfying for you as well.  
All comments and questions may be sent to me at my e-mail address. Please see my profile for details.  
Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy the story.

 _ **The Morning After**_  
by  
Julie Horwitz

Mal lay awake in the dark dorm room, unable to sleep as Ben's last words of the night to her played over and over again in her head.

"We'll talk tomorrow, okay?" he'd said as he'd kissed her goodnight.

The high she'd been feeling since reverting back to human form had instantly evaporated.

It was a conversation she should have realized was coming and she was dreading it with every fiber of her being.

Ben was going to ask her to tell him why she had done everything she had done, including using magic to turn herself into a "perfect princess" and why she had tried to push him away after he'd come for her on the Isle.

How could she explain it to him in a way he would understand? Ben had blinders on when it came to anyone's faults, hers especially. He only saw (or tried to see) the best in everyone he met. (Even Uma, who he had repeatedly tried to reason with despite her holding him captive and threatening to kill him.) He didn't realize how unique he was, even in a place like Auradon.

That had not been more obvious when he'd apologized ( _apologized!_ ) to her for their fight at the lake. Who apologized for being right? Ben, apparently! And he'd come all the way to the Isle just to say sorry and beg her to come home.

It hadn't been until that moment that she had realized the depth of his love for her.

A depth that her love for _him_ matched...

She sighed and played with the ring on her finger.

She had been so consumed with her fears that she had forgotten that Ben had fallen in love with her _before_ she had started using spells to turn herself into the perfect Auradonian princess. She'd only thought about what others would think of her if she was not the ideal girlfriend for their king. Would they pressure Ben into dumping her for someone more suitable, like Audrey? Or would they instead turn against him for staying with her? And if the people turned against him simply for sticking with her, how long would it be before he turned against _her_? And if that happened...

So she had used their fight as an excuse to escape from everything she was afraid _could_ happen. Instead of talking to Ben or, better yet, Evie about her thoughts and feelings (as a good Auradon girl would have done), she had chosen the coward's way out and, in true villain fashion, run away. She had convinced herself that it was best for both Ben and Auradon.

And by doing so, she had almost led to Auradon's destruction at the hands of Uma and her pirate minions...

Yet Ben still loved her. After everything she had done to him and caused him to go through, his love for her was as strong as ever. And she didn't think it was possible to love anyone as much as she loved him. (Which was why she had been so devastated when she thought he had dumped her for Uma...) As Evie had kept squealing happily about all night, theirs was a True Love, which was rare even in a place like Auradon. And a True Love could survive anything.

Even what she had put Ben through.

Sighing again, she decided that being sleep deprived wasn't going to make the conversation any easier.

Wishing that she still had her spell book if only to find a sleeping spell, she closed her eyes, emptied her mind of all thoughts of Ben, and tried to fall asleep.

((()))

Mal took a deep breath as she came to a stop outside of Ben's office door.

This was it. The moment she had been dreading. (She had considered putting it off until later in the day, but had decided getting it over with early was probably for the best.) But it was a moment that had to happen in order for her and Ben to move forward.

Steeling herself, she raised her hand and knocked on the door.

Instead of the expected "come in," the door immediately opened and Ben pulled her into a kiss.

"Good morning," he said after he had let her go. "How are you today?"

"Um, a lot better than I was a minute ago," she replied, still reeling from the unexpected greeting. "Good morning to you too. Someone's in a good mood today."

"Why wouldn't I be?" he wanted to know, taking her hand. "As of last night, you are officially my lady. As far as I'm concerned, everything is perfect."

Mal felt her stomach churn at the knowledge of how what she was going to say was going to bring his soaring spirits crashing down.

"Come on in," he continued, gently pulling her into his office. "We have a lot to talk about."

"Um, yeah," she agreed as he led her across the room. "We do."

Her already intense nervousness grew with every step. She knew that the instant she began to explain the reasons for her poor behavior the happiness that Ben was feeling right now would vanish. She had no idea how he was going to ultimately react, but she knew it wasn't going to be good. Ben hated lies and deception, which was exactly what she had been giving to him for months.

At least she knew he wouldn't stop loving her...

They arrived at the extremely comfortable couch in the back of his office. A couch that they had sat on together many, many times in the past...

Kissing more often than talking...

"Mal, I am so sorry that I was too busy with my royal duties to notice that you were having a hard time," Ben began, shocking her completely. "I've been a terrible boyfriend. I should-"

"Wait, what?!" she interrupted him, unable to believe he was apologizing _again_ when he'd done nothing wrong. "Are you kidding me? You're the best boyfriend a girl could ever want! You're so sweet and thoughtful and devoted. Why would you think you've been terrible?"

"Because I didn't notice all of the pressure you were under," he told her. "I took it for granted that you were happy and doing just fine. I thought you were making all of those little changes because you wanted to, not because you thought you had to. I had no idea that you felt the way you did."

"That's only because I hid it from you," she reminded him, feeling guiltier than ever about her bad choices. "I was so afraid that one day you'd realize that I wasn't the type of girl you wanted as your girlfriend. I-"

"Mal, no, you-"

"No, you need to hear this," she stopped him. "I want you to know what was going through my head so you can understand why I did what I did. I want you to know that none of it was your fault."

She could see that he wanted to protest, but he simply said, "tell me everything."

"As I'm sure everyone in Auradon knows, growing up on the Isle is nothing like growing up here," she began. "Not only do we not have any of the luxuries you do, but we don't have the same kind of relationship with our parents that you have with yours. Your parents love and accept you just because. Our parents only want one thing from us and that's to follow in their evil footsteps. We're expected to be wicked, evil, and cruel and if we don't meet their expectations, we get punished. The only time our parents show us anything near affection is if we've done something really rotten. So the worse we behave, the better we're treated. So we learn at a very young age that the meaner we are to others, the happier we make our parents and that happiness equals no punishments. So that's how we treat everyone we meet. And for the most part, no one thinks twice about it because we understand that's how it is. We're mean to you and you're mean to us. We don't let it get to us because we don't know any other way to be.

"So when we first arrived here, I just continued behaving the only way I knew how to," she continued. "I made sure everyone around me knew I was a VK and that I didn't care that it made anyone uncomfortable. I was my mother's daughter and rotten to the core. My only goal was to get the wand and make my mom proud. Nothing else mattered.

"And then you happened."

She smiled at him and took his hands.

"You got to me in ways I could have never have imagined," she told him. "You said things that made me rethink who I thought I was and who I wanted to be. You made me start to _feel._ And that's _after_ you broke my love spell." She gave a tiny laugh. "If only I knew, right? I could have chosen good a lot sooner and avoided the whole coronation mess with my mom.

"So I chose good and everything changed," she went on. "Not only was I a VK that had turned good, but I was the King's girlfriend, too. Suddenly, I was the center of more attention than I'd ever had in my entire life. I could feel every single pair of eyes on me every time we went out in public. And although no one actually said anything, I knew I was being judged. How could I not be? I was from the _Isle_! Manners and etiquette weren't something our parents thought we needed to know. And that's why I messed up. A lot. A whole lot. I know you remember some of those first dinners. And then if that wasn't bad enough, every mistake was captured by cameras and then shared with all of Auradon. The tiniest slip-up became front page news. Something I wanted to forget was thrown in my face over and over again."

Ben opened his mouth to say something, but she held up a hand to stop him. She knew what he was going to say, what he always said about reporters, that she should ignore them. But he didn't understand what it was like for her. He'd grown up in the spotlight as prince of Auradon. Being hounded by reporters was nothing new to him. But she'd never experienced anything like them before in her life and their every question left her feeling vulnerable and exposed. It was a feeling she didn't like and didn't know if she could ever get used to.

"For the first time in my life, I was embarrassed," she went on. "I was embarrassed and humiliated and wanted to disappear. Me, who used to go around the Isle looking for people to torment, was ashamed of what I didn't know. Having my every mistake on display was overwhelming and it made me feel like such a fool for not knowing things that were obvious to everyone around me. And I knew that people were starting to wonder what you were doing with someone like me."

"Mal..."

"And that's when I started wondering too."

"Oh, Mal, how-"

"You have been nothing but wonderful to me from the very beginning," she assured him, squeezing his hands. "Even when I was rude to you, which I most definitely was, you continued to be friendly and kind. You are a very persistent person, Your Highness, and you don't give up even when things look hopeless." She gave him a tiny smile. "When we're alone, I don't doubt for a second that you love me and want to be with me. You even make jokes out of my mistakes. I never laugh as hard as I do when I'm with you. You treat me as if I were one of the pretty pink princesses you've always known. When we're together, I never feel like I don't belong here. I think I fell in love with you from the beginning. I just didn't recognize my feelings for a really long time. And when I did...

"I got so scared that I was going to lose you," she elaborated. "With every new story about us that highlighted how different we were, my fears grew. If I was noticing, you had to be too, right? And if you were noticing, I figured you were starting to have second thoughts about being with me. That's when decided I had to do something about it. I thought that if I became the perfect Auradon princess you wouldn't stop loving me."

She could see Ben struggling again against the urge to protest, but to his credit, he respected her wishes and remained silent. (Which only made her love him more.)

"At first, I tried to do things on my own," she continued her narrative. "I went to the library and took out books on cooking and manners and even ones on how I should dress and do my hair. Evie was so excited when I asked her to make me a new wardrobe. Any excuse to dress me up, right? But trying to study all of those things on top of my school work was too much and I just couldn't do it. I was staying up late at night after finishing my homework and trying to learn the difference between a dinner fork and a dessert fork. Although I was able to keep my grades up, my teachers were constantly asking me if anything was wrong. I was a total mess, but I just _knew_ I couldn't go back to being the way I had been before.

"So that's when I figured that using a little magic to help things along wouldn't hurt. And it worked! The news stories stopped focusing on my differences and started praising how well I was fitting in. The other girls at school started including me in more activities now that I was more like them. And even you seemed to like the new me better, which was what convinced me more than anything that I had made the right decision."

Again, she could see Ben wanting to say something so badly, but he remained silent.

"But of course the problem with using spells to gain new skills is that you need to keep up the spells to keep the skills from suddenly disappearing," she continued. "I had to keep track of which spell to recast when and suddenly I was back where I started, overwhelmed and barely managing to get by. I'm just lucky I didn't mix up any spells or my deception would have been exposed a whole lot sooner. And on top of that you started your tour of the kingdom and wanted to take me along with you, which meant that I had even more customs to learn and remember.

"And then the Cotillion announcement happened," Mal went on. "If it had just been a dance, I think I would have been fine. Still completely overwhelmed, but fine. But as soon as you told me I was going to be made a part of the court as a lady, I knew I was in trouble. I could barely handle being a student plus your perfect girlfriend as it was. How was I going to fit in whatever new duties came with being a lady? I didn't know what to do other than to keep up the same act I'd been.

"And that brings us to our picnic," she finished. "You found the spell book with the marked spells and you got upset with me, as you should have, and I just...I don't know...I just didn't want to deal with anything anymore. I was tired and overwhelmed and afraid and I wanted everything to go away. So I made that happen the only way I knew how: I ran back to the Isle." Tears filled her eyes. "I never thought you'd come after me. And then you were in front of me and begging me to come home with you... You have no idea how hard it was to say no to you. But I really thought it was for the best. Why make a big fake like me your lady when you could have a genuine princess by your side? Someone who belonged and would never make you look bad."

Ben pulled one of his hands from hers and gently wiped at the tears that were falling down her cheeks. "Because there's no one else I have ever loved," he informed her, unable to keep his silence any longer. "You were the first girl to ever win my heart."

His words took her by surprise.

"What about-"

"Audrey?" he interrupted. "Just because she was my girlfriend doesn't mean I was in love with her. And she wasn't in love with me either. We just started dating because everyone expected it of us. We've been friends all of our lives. Why do you think she was so easily able to make Chad her new boyfriend literally the moment after I, um, announced my love for you? Well, the spelled version of my love anyway."

Mal couldn't help but laugh at the memory. "Yeah, that cookie really did a number on you, didn't it?"

"I don't think I ever want to know what was in it," he let her know.

"Well, if you ever change your mind, you can find the book in the museum," she teased. "It's the love spell with the best reviews."

"Wait, there are reviews in your spell book?"

"Yep. And, no, I don't know how they got there either."

"Magic, right?"

"Right."

They both laughed at that and Mal felt all of her fears and worries completely melt away.

Unbelievably, Ben hadn't reacted badly to anything she had told him. In fact, he'd repeatedly tried to tell her how misguided her beliefs had been. And now they were laughing about how she'd initially spelled him. He truly was a wonder.

"You know," he said in a serious voice after a few moments, "I believe we would have fallen in love even if you hadn't put me under that spell."

"I'm not so sure about that," she replied. "Remember, I was going to help my mom take over the world by getting Fairy Godmother's wand for her. I, um, I don't see how we could have happened if you were, you know, my prisoner."

"And I think you still wouldn't have helped her," Ben asserted.

Mal gave him a look. "I barely chose good as it is and that's only because of how I feel about you."

"No," he said, shaking his head, "I truly don't believe that. You were always meant to be good, Mal. I could tell you weren't evil from the moment we met."

"Oh, yes, the goodness was just pouring out of me as I insulted your welcome speech," she sarcastically commented.

"I didn't say you were nice," he amended and she laughed again. "But think about this: in any story you've ever heard about villains, have any of them ever had friends?"

The question surprised her. "Um, no," she answered after a moment. She couldn't recall her mom having any friends either, just minions. (Which is what she considered Cruella, Evil Queen, and Jafar, not that she would have ever told them that to their faces.) "Why?"

"Because villains only care about themselves and no one else," he told her. "They will do anything to get what they want and they don't care who they hurt to get it. Yet you, Evie, Jay, and Carlos are friends and you go out of your way to protect each other. If any of you were truly evil, would you feel that way about each other?"

Mal didn't know how to answer. She'd never thought about it before although Mom had constantly tried to convince her to drop her friends and focus on their evil destiny. But the four of them had come together years ago and they'd been close ever since. It had never occurred to her that their friendship was a less than villainous trait.

"And what about the fact that the four of you spent so much time trying to fit in when you first got here?" Ben pressed his case. "Why didn't you just go for the wand immediately?"

"Um, actually we did," she corrected, wanting him to truly understand who she had been. "We kind of snuck into the museum our very first night here. If it weren't for the magic barrier, we would have grabbed the wand and ran.

"Really?" Ben looked genuinely surprised. "I hadn't heard anything about that and my parents obviously didn't either or you would have been sent back immediately."

"Yeah, I used a spell to put the guard to sleep, so he had no idea we broke in," she let him know. "We were doing the stealth thing."

"And there's your proof right there," Ben smiled. "An evil person would have cast a spell to force the guard to let you in and hand over the wand. The fact that neither you or any of your friends thought of that show me that you weren't evil."

"Um, wow," Mal responded, realizing that he had a point. "That literally never crossed my mind."

She thought back to her very first night in Auradon. Her only desire had been to get the wand and return to the Isle as had been Evie, Carlos, and Jay's. (Well, maybe not Evie's. She'd fallen in love with Auradon from the moment she'd stepped into her dorm room.) Her first thought upon seeing the guard at the museum was how to get past him, not to either use or harm him. After all, he was just doing his job. (She doubted her mom would have thought the same way.)

"You have no idea how glad I am it didn't," Ben said. "I would have never gotten the chance to know you." He took a strand of her hair between his fingers. "I would have never gotten to fall in love with you."

"I love you so much," she told him.

It felt so right to be able to voice those words to him. She could kick herself from letting her fears keep her from saying it to him before last night.

"I love you too," he echoed, leaning in and giving her a soft kiss. "Thank you for telling me all of this. I'm so sorry you ever felt that way. I hate myself for not knowing what you were going through."

"Please don't do that, Ben," she urged him. "You've been-still _are_ -so busy with being king. You have so much you're still learning and there are so many people depending on you. How could you have been expected to notice something I was so desperately trying to hide?"

"That's not the point," he argued. "I _should_ have noticed. You're one of the most important people on my life, Mal. I feel as if I've been ignoring you."

"Ignoring?" she burst out incredulously. "Ben, you've been showering me with gifts almost non-stop! You spend almost all of your free time with me and all of your royal functions too. If that's ignoring, I can't imagine your idea of paying attention!"

"I just don't want you to ever feel the way you did again," he told her.

"I won't," she promised. "I'll just have to resign myself to never completely fitting in. As Evie reminded me yesterday, I'm part Isle and part Auradon. That's who I am and as long as I'm okay with it, that's all that should matter."

"And you are my true love," Ben asserted, pulling her into his arms. "If the people can't accept that, than that's their problem, not yours."

"So this whole true love thing," she teasingly started, wanting to lighten the conversation, "I'm guessing that means we're stuck with each other for the rest of our lives?"

"I'm afraid so," he replied, kissing the top of her head.

"Well, that's a relief since we're engaged to be engaged to be engaged, you know."

"Say what?"

She laughed. "According to Jane, when you decided to make me a lady of the court, we became engaged to be engaged to be engaged. Apparently, they're already envisioning our wedding."

"Oh, boy!"

"I know, right? It's as if we don't have any say in our own relationship!"

"I guess that means I don't have to worry about proposing one day," he quipped. "We can just be sitting around and decide 'let's go get married' and then just do it!"

"Uh-huh, like that's going to go over with certain people, say your parents, very well," Mal shot back as she broke out of his embrace so she could look at him. "And Evie would _kill_ me if she couldn't make my wedding dress."

"Why do I have the feeling that she's already designed one for you?"

"Because she probably already has," Mal agreed with a smile. "And she probably has your outfit as well."

"Well, I suppose those are a couple less things we need to worry about," he mock sighed. "Now we can focus on what's really important."

"And what's that?"

"What we're going to name our kids!"

"Oh, you did not just say that!" she laughed as she punched him in the arm. "We may be engaged to be engaged to be engaged, but I am so not ready to have kids! That's not going to happen for a very long time! A very, very, very long time!"

"You mean, you can't picture yourself holding little Bertha?"

"Ben, we are _not_ giving that name to our child!"

"How about Florian?"

"For the last time, we are not giving our hideous middle names to our children!"

Ben simply smiled. "You just said 'our children.'"

"Just because I said I didn't want to have any right now doesn't mean I don't want any in the future," she informed him. "We have other things we need to do first before we even _think_ about starting a family. Like finishing school."

"I see your point. It wouldn't go over too well if we had kids before then."

"Can you just imagine the headlines? 'King Ben falls prey to his lady's wicked ways.' We'd both have to run away to the Isle!"

"Mal," Ben said after a moment and his voice had again become serious. "Back on the Isle, you said that it was your home. Did you... I mean, do you still feel that way?"

Her heart ached at the fact that he had to ask her that.

She took his hands again into hers. "No. Of course not, no. My home is here with you in Auradon. I'll never leave you again. I promise."

"I'm going to hold you to that, you know," he said. "Every day, for the rest of our lives."

"And I'm going to do the same to you," she let him know. "I expect that there will be no more falling in love with other girls."

"Being under Uma's spell... It was so different from when you spelled me," he told her. "I was aware of everything and I couldn't stop myself from saying those terrible things she made me say. It was the most horrible thing I've ever experienced."

"Me too," she agreed. "I honestly thought I had lost you to that pirate."

"Why did it take you so long to realize I had been spelled?" he wanted to know.

"Because I thought I had hurt you too badly back at the hideout," she confessed. "I figured I had pushed you too far and you were done with me. But once you started demanding the barrier come down, I knew. The real King Ben would know that letting all the villains off the Isle would be too dangerous."

"I was hurt by your rejection, but that couldn't change how I felt about you," he told her. "A True Love is forever. Nothing will ever change that."

Mal smiled up at him.

"I love you, Ben."

"I love you, Mal. So very much."

And then he pulled her into another long kiss.

The End


End file.
